"Things I Learned Last Week"

As some of you know, I have been working on this grad cert for teaching ESL.  Part of the course requirements is an action research project, so I bought a book to help me with that.

I read the first chapter in an effort to get started on this project.  I honestly intended to just b.s. my way through this whole thing, get the A, and move on.  After all, when am I ever going to use all of the random things we've done?  I just wanted to learn some strategies for teaching ELLs.  (Honestly, the only reason that I even applied was that my district was paying 80% of the tuition.)

Anyway.  After reading the first chapter, I have decided that I am really interested in becoming a teacher-researcher!  Not just for the purposes of this class, but because I think I could learn a lot from actually paying closer attention to the data that I'm analyzing anyway.  By thinking about said data a little differently.  By thinking about it as a researcher that happens to be a teacher.

So to keep myself motivated to do this project the right way, I've decided to sort of document my journey through the whole process here.  Some of it might be boring.  Some of it might not apply to you.  But maybe you want to be a teacher-researcher, too!  Maybe you want to and you just don't know it!  (That was me.  I just didn't know that I wanted to seriously document the changes that I was planning to make anyway.)

The book is set up in such a way that includes a "Research Workshop" within each section of the book.  (I wonder if that's supposed to be comparable to a Reading Workshop or Writing Workshop that I do with my students...)

The first "workshop" was designed to get the teacher-researcher thinking about things differently.  It's titled "Celebrating 'Things I Learned Last Week.'"

On page 9, the authors write:

"In the pages that follow are examples from new and veteran teacher-researchers who explain how they dig into their data and cope with the messiness of their evolving research.  Some of the advice deals with the little things we learn that can get us through the day, if we pay close attention to them, and help us reconnect with the research questions that intrigue us.  It takes practice to notice the small details.  It may involve looking through a new lens, readjusting our focus, and celebrating what we see as we document what we have learned.

"The poet William Stafford believes that these details in life are the 'golden threads' that lead us to what he calls 'amazing riches.'  In his poem 'Things I Learned Last Week,' he celebrates the learning that comes from close observation, from reading, and from reflecting on his own actions:"

The authors of Living the Questions then discuss teacher-researchers' attempts at taking on the challenge of looking closely at "what we learned last week."  I decided to take on that challenge myself.

It was a lot harder than it sounded when I was reading that part of the book!  Holy cow!!

You should give it a try, too!  Here is the format:

• Title
• Write "Things I Learned..." and then the increment of time of your choosing.
• Under your title, write in parenthesis, (with apologies to William Stafford)
• Couplet 1
• Start with a living thing (animal, plant, insect),
• and something unique, quirky, or little-known about that species.
• Couplet 2
• Begin with, “Sometimes” and follow with some small noticing or observation.  It could be poetic, about life, or something literal, like something you discovered recently just going about your business in everyday life.
• Quatrain 1
• Begin with “A man/woman” and something he/she does.
• Then, write two lines that reveal some irony or contradiction about what the man/woman does. This can allude to a specific person, or be more general.
• Couplet 3
• Write about a famous person or institution,
• Then write something that contradicts the previous statement or makes it ironic.
• Couplet 4
• Same as above.
• Quatrain 2
• Follow this format: 
• If I ever die, I’d like it to be
• (time, place, month, etc). That way, I’ll have
• (something in nature/natural phenomenon) to go with me, and
• (a thought about why you chose the ‘something’ above)
• Quatrain 3
• Write about a place (could be a building, city, country, type of climate or geographical landscape, etc.)
• Then "one person's job is to..." then some description that you find interesting, sad, ironic, funny, or surprising.  Ideally, this should refer to allude vaguely to the first couplet.

Good luck!  Let me know how yours turns out!

I really am thinking about teacher-research in a brand new way.  I'm looking forward to beginning the school year so I can get this project off the ground.  Of course, I look at all of the work that I still need to do and realize that I'm running out of summer.  But it will all come together in due time.

Here are some things I've learned about research (the "little r" kind)...

10 Steps to Independence - Book Study

Hi, there.  I'm joining up again with Primary Inspired and the rest of the great bloggers working through thoroughly understanding the inner workings of The Daily 5.

I'm a little late, though.  Let me tell you what; I put way more thought into my literature review that I was working on (homework) than was necessary.  But once I started writing it, there was no more worrying about whether or not I was doing it correctly.  The words just sort of... happened.

Anyway.  A few days late to this party, but my homework got finished... Worth it!

Now that I'm back on track, we're talking about the 10 steps to teaching and learning independence.

If you know me at all, you know how I love brain research!  It applies so much to how I do things and the rationale behind what I do, both in the classroom and in my life!  It's no wonder that it was so easy to agree with these ten steps.  Honestly, before reading the D5 book, I was already doing probably 7 of these steps... Check me out, being cool before it was cool!  The important take-away from all of this is to make sure that you're activating the whole brain while you're teaching.  That way, you impose upon the students' muscle memories to form habits.

Step 1.  Identify what is to be taught

Pretty simple, right?  But this is a step that I see so many teachers just jump right over!  If you want the kids to learn something, they need to know what it is they are trying to learn!  "[A]rticulating exactly what is going to be taught is an important step to creating independent learners" (p. 37).  This is where your "I can..." statements come in.  State your teaching objective in kid-friendly terms, and you've got yourself a learning objective!

Step 2.  Set a purpose and create a sense of urgency

Tell them the why of what you just told them they were responsible for learning.  The Sisters talk about how they use a section of the i-Charts for this purpose.  That's great, but don't forget to set a purpose for all of your other lessons, too.  Kids don't want to learn about things they don't care about, so you've got to let them know why they should care!

Step 3.  Record desired behaviors on an i-Chart

This works so well!  It makes everything so much easier to reflect upon later because you've given students a rubric right there.. posted on your wall.. for all to see!  When you take away the ability for students to say they didn't know what they were supposed to do, they won't do things they aren't supposed to do anymore.  If your school is using CHAMPS, this is the same idea.  In my classroom, I use the i-Chart as part of my CHAMPS board.  "P" down there at the bottom... "Participation"... "How will Ms. Dawley know that I'm doing my job?"  Well, it's all that stuff on the i-Chart!  Easy, peasy, lemon-squeezy!

Step 4:  Model most-desirable behaviors

Once that i-Chart is made, show, don't tell, the behaviors that you expect to see.  Model, model, model!  As teachers, I feel like we say that a lot.  But again, I see so many new teachers that forget this step.  It's so important to model for students what is expected.

Step 5:  Model least-desired behaviors

Confession:  This is the step that I forgot all of the time!  I've added it in over the last couple of years since reading the first edition, and I have definitely seen its importance to the process.  The best part:  You pick the barometer kid to show the least-desired behaviors, he gets his 15 seconds of fame (the attention that he was going to get anyway by acting up... you've given it to him now on your terms), and he now has that out of his system.  Then you go ahead and let that kiddo show the correct way.  Now, if he does act up during independent work time, you can use the modeling to your advantage.  He has already shown you that he can do his job correctly, so you can point that out!  (Don't forget the last correct model.  People remember the last thing they see or hear.  They need to see and hear the correct model before being released to work.)

Step 6:  Place students around the room

This one has always been sort of tough for me.  I never really know where kids would be comfortable, so I always second-guess the places that I choose for them to sit.  I'm still working on this.  I know I just need to get over it because they will be choosing their own spots soon.  The whole purpose here is to just let them know where they are allowed to sit.  Once they start choosing their own spots, it's easy to say "Remember to stay away from the doors and the water fountain."  They usually do very well when the time comes to let them choose, but I forget every year that the beginning-of-the-year kids are way different than last year's end-of-the-year kids.

Step 7:  Practice and build stamina

This part is important, but it's one of those that I didn't add in when I started teaching.  Why I didn't consider that the kids couldn't behave and stay on task because I didn't let them build up to it was beyond me.  Of course it wasn't my fault! Yes it was.  Now that I have added this in (and we graph the growth as a class), they can work independently for so much longer!!

Step 8:  Stay out of the way

This is so important in the beginning.  True, you are going to think that you won't be able to do this because you need to make sure the kids are on task.  Well, guess what?  They are only ever going to be on task when you're looking at them if you give them that expectation from the beginning!  The goal here, remember, is to teach them to do the right thing even when no one is looking.  You can't teach them that if you're always there to correct them!  Give them some space.  Let them mess up (and they will).  Once someone is off task, note that child as a possible "barometer" child, and go back to whole group.  This is going to be quite the process at the start, but it'll be fine.  (This whole process makes me crazy at the beginning because I feel like my kiddos can't do anything, but it will all be great soon.  So worthwhile.  Trust me!)

Step 9:  Use a quiet signal to bring students back to the gathering place

The noise that will come from cleaning up and coming back together will match the volume of the signal that you use to get the students' attention.  You want to have something calming and quiet.  This will make transitions so much easier!  (Oh, and don't forget the CHAMPS chart for transitions!!)

Step 10:  Conduct a group check-in

And here it is... My last confession for this post:  Here's another step that I would always skip, but it's so important!  As a teacher, I am often reflecting on how things went during a lesson, what I need to do differently next time, interventions that I now need to provide because my students didn't quite get where I needed them to be... The list goes on and on.  You know this; you do it, too.  Well, the same thing is true for those kids!  They need time to reflect to become better.  They won't do it on their own, though.  They need some direction.  Chances are, they've never self-evaluated anything they've ever done before.  (At least that's the case with my Firsties.)  This also a good time for a statement of commitment (because you know I'm a Conscious Discipline fan, too).  That statement would be as simple as "Next time, I will _."  Older kids could write it down on a slip of paper, maybe an exit ticket or something.  Younger children could simply say it to a partner or maybe draw a picture.  I'm going with say it to a partner because this needs to be quick.


There it is.  Those ten steps will make your dive into student independence so much easier, I swear!  But you have to do them all!  Every time!!

Tell me what you think.  I look forward to hearing your perspectives on this whole idea!  If you have a blog, comment here with your blog link.  I'd love to visit you!  Then head on over to Primary Inspired and link up.  If you don't have a blog, comment anyway!

If you'd like to get my graphs for charting students' stamina, you can visit my TPT Store [here] or click the picture below.

I referenced both CHAMPS and Conscious Discipline in this post.  You can get more information on CHAMPS [here] and on Conscious Discipline [here].

If you missed Chapter 2, you can use the image below to navigate your search.

     

The Foundation of the Daily 5 - Book Study

Once again, I'm joining all of the great bloggers who linked up with Primary Inspired to talk about The Daily 5 Chapter 2, "Our Core Beliefs:  The Foundations of the Daily 5."

I have to admit, once again, that a lot of my thoughts wandered off to Conscious Discipline while I was reading.  Right out of the gate, all of the mentioned core beliefs fall right in line with everything that I know about Conscious Discipline:

• Trust and Respect
• Community
• Choice
• Accountability
• Brain Research
• Transitions as Brain and Body Breaks
• 10 Steps to Independence

Okay, so maybe that last one was something that I remember from the first edition of The Daily Five, but it still fits in.

"Meaningful learning requires respect and trust between the teacher and students."  That's the first sentence about The Sisters' views on the topic, and I couldn't agree more!  We do teach our students rules, expectations, behaviors, academic content, etc., etc., etc..., but we seem to always fear letting them go to do it independently.  We underestimate them when, in fact, we need to trust them!  By showing them that we trust them to do the right thing, we are giving them the respect they need to feel like we know they can do well!  When they know that we trust them, they will respect and trust us.  Trust and respect make up the foundation for building community!

Truth:  This has Conscious Discipline written all over it!  We need that loving and caring environment for students to feel safe.  That safe feeling keeps the students in their executive brain state, and it allows for them to be in a position to learn.  The executive state is where people (not just kids) can make wise choices, and they can't be in that state if they do not feel safe and loved!

In my experience, allowing students to make choices regarding activities that they'd like to do is the most powerful tool in my tool belt when it comes to time on task.  A person is more likely to complete a task that he has decided to take on himself.  I can use personal experience to reinforce this idea.  I love reading, really I do.  But do you know what I absolutely hate?  Reading.  I want to read a book that I want to read, darn it!  

I recently finished Born to Run, but I had the hardest time getting started.  The only motivation I had to read it was that my boyfriend suggested it and I didn't want to disappoint him by saying it just wasn't my thing.  (I'm sort of obsessed with the Alex Cross series.  That's my "thing."  I thought he knew that about me.  Geez!)  Anyway.  I read a few books when summer began, and I was in my happy place.  It wasn't until he left for work that I picked up the book because I wanted to.  And it was a great book!  I finished it in about two days, and I'm glad I read it.  But it was the worst thing ever when I didn't want to read it.  The same thing happens to me when I'm assigned a book to read for class.  I just don't want to read it.  I'd much rather read something that I chose than something that someone else put in my hand.  Anyway.  I'm rambling here.  

Choice is powerful for students for more than just their reading material (although that does have its benefits).  Allowing students to choose which tasks they want to complete is extremely powerful for motivation!  (I think The Sisters also said something along those lines.)  Even when students are required to choose from a list of options, all of which must be completed, they comply when they get to make the choice of the order of completion.

I honestly could not have said that better!  Students will make a commitment to their learning when they make a choice.  In order to see the results, they have got to learn to hold themselves accountable!

I can't tell you how many "Ah-ha!" moments I had while reading this section.  I don't know why I had so many... I did read the first edition; honest!  But there was so much happening here that made me realize that much of what I was doing was great, but my thinking about what I was doing still needed work.

For example, I stopped using the workbooks from the reading series years ago.  I noticed the same thing that was mentioned in the book:  "... many of the students did not have the ability to fill our the worksheets [independently]..." (p. 27).  Can I just tell you how much I hate reading every single thing on the page aloud just so the kids can complete it?  And then having to reread to individuals that weren't paying attention the first time or just didn't really understand what was going on... Torture, I tell you!  But I still wanted something that students had to complete to prove that they (1) did the work, (2) knew what they were doing, and (3) I could physically have to present should there be any questions about the child later.  But seriously.  Worksheets don't hold kids accountable.  There are so many other things that we can do to make sure they know what they're doing.  Starting with keeping anecdotal notes as data for progress.  Kids keep themselves accountable for behaviors, and we can see them because students are self-managing during those independent work times.  We keep kids accountable for their learning by conferring with them individually and meeting with small groups.  Those anecdotal notes are plenty for keeping track of the learning, and there are other ways to have the kids show what they know (because we are tethered to those pesky grade books).  They can share at the end of the literacy block, do book talks, book reports (but fun ones, not the boring ones that we grew up with), maybe keeping a reader's notebook to jot thoughts while reading... The list is endless.

I have done a lot of random reading over the last five or six years about the brain.  Everything from how video games affect kids' brains to how long a 6-year-old can pay attention.  I have to be honest here, there wasn't much in the D5 book that gave me that "Wow!" feeling, but I definitely found myself nodding in agreement often as I was reading.  I'm so glad that The Sisters mentioned the research on attention spans.  More adults, whether teachers or not, need to know this stuff!  I mean, how many times have you sat through hours upon hours of lecture trainings or classes?  And what did you get from it?  Probably a whole lot of squat.  Now think about those classes or trainings that were more interactive.  Those that provided opportunity for movement (or brain breaks) periodically.  Those that allowed time to talk to the people around you to solidify ideas.  Much more valuable, right?  

We need to give our students short bursts of information, then allow them time to process it.  Now, I know.  Sometimes our lessons just have to be longer than 5 or 6 minutes.  That's okay.  A brain break could be a full-blown yoga session, or it could be as simple as a turn and talk.  This will refocus the brain and allow the students time to process the information.  I wish I could remember the name of the guy that I saw last August.  He was amazing!  (He wrote a book... something about swallowing an elephant or something?  I don't know.)  Anyway.  The information that he gave about the brain was so helpful!  Once a person has given you as much attention as they can, a reaction happens in the brain.  I remember the image on his slideshow of these yellow balls bursting.  Once the yellow ball bursts, the person is no longer even hearing you.  (Well, they hear you and they may appear focused, but their brain just can't take anymore and it needs to refocus.)  They can't learn anything if they can't pay attention.  If you aren't familiar with it, create an account with GoNoodle.  It's free, it's fun, and there are brain breaks available of all lengths, levels of energy, and forms.

I could go on with more examples of why transitions are necessary, but I'll leave you with this:

Transitions do not need to be difficult.

I often just give my students what they need for a lesson one piece at a time.  We use the materials, I ask them to go put the item away and come back to the meeting place, and suddenly like magic they are ready to go again!  All they need is just a moment to not have to listen to you.  That's all.  There are a lot of ways to integrate simple brain breaks.  Perhaps one day, we should have a linky about those!

***

I know this was a lengthy post, and I appreciate you for sticking with me through it!  See you next time when we talk about The Ten Steps to Independence (also mentioned in the foundations of D5, but it's so big that it requires way more detail that just an insert into a chapter)!
(Use the images at the bottom of this page to navigate the book study.

          

What I'm reading..

I'm pretty sure everyone is finally on summer vacation!  It is much deserved!  Woohoo!! School is through!!  Teachers, if you haven't yet, go outside, get a sunburn (or be like me and smell like a Coppertone everyday!), laze around, grab a book that has nothing to do with your job, spend time with your families... Do something that isn't work related!  I spent my first weekend of summer vacation out with my friends and my second weekend (Memorial Day) camping with my friends and boyfriend.  Cooper Lake is beautiful, right? :)

My dogs sometimes like camping, too.  Haha!!  (The black one is afraid of water.  What kind of lab is afraid of water? Geez! Only my dogs... Haha!)

So after some much needed "me" time, I came home, showered off all of the camping grime, and picked up a book.  My boyfriend suggested Born to Run.  One of his friends gifted it to him, and he enjoyed it.  He knew that I was a runner for a long time, so he thought I'd like it.  I have to be honest, I didn't at first.  I couldn't really get into the storyline.  But then, I don't know what happened... It took me like 856 years to get through the first chapter, but once I did, that was it.  Even with the enormous to-do list I had, I finished the book within two days.  If you have a passion, or even just a small curiosity, about marathon running, this is a good book.  I don't run marathons.  I'll do a 5k here and there.  The last one I did was the Mud Factor Obstacle Course.

But I'm no marathoner... or so I thought.  This book will tell you why you're actually a marathoner, why you're wearing the wrong shoes, why you're having pain in your ankles and knees, why you can't seem to get farther than you did the last time you ran.  I won't tell my boyfriend, but it was pretty good. ;)

Professional texts that I've read so far this summer include The Read-Aloud Handbook (more like a skim because I read it two summers ago), The Writing Thief (which you can read about [here] and [here]), The CAFE Book, which is of course the supplement to The Daily 5 (which you can start reading about [here]), Introducing Reader's Workshop:  Supporting Our Youngest Readers, and Conscious Discipline which I attended a training for during the four days after Memorial Day.

I definitely recommend all of them, but if you have to choose just one, please choose The Read-Aloud Handbook.  Then share it with other teachers everyone you know!  I buy a copy for everyone that I know that is having a baby, educator or not.  It wasn't written for education; it was written about education!

As some of you are aware, I'm currently in another round of grad school.  I'm working on a Graduate Certificate for Teaching English as a Second Language.  (I haven't decided yet if I'm going to turn this into another Masters program... I only need the grad cert for the state to give me the endorsement on my teaching license, and do I really need another Masters degree?  Probably not. Haha!)

Anyway.  The assignment that I'm working on has me reading these two books:  The Literature Review:  Six Steps to Success and Living the Questions:  A Guide for Teacher Researchers.  I don't know if either are any good.  I'm sure they would be extremely useful if you're also trying to complete an action research project.  But that's what I'm reading now.

As for my reading plans for once this literature review and research design are complete... Well, I've got some pretty lofty goals.  These are the books that I want to read (plus several more on my bookshelf next to my chair), but I know that I won't be able to read them all.  I don't know what to start with, though... I guess I've got until I finish my homework to decide.  :)

What's on your summer reading list?

The Writing Theif... revisited

So, I finished the book.  It was a quick read considering the amount of information contained in so few chapters!  (If you missed my initial opinions, you might want to click [here], as I fully intend to elaborate on some of that a little bit.)

Let me just say that this woman is sort of brilliant.  This whole book is brilliant.  I loved the way it was written.  It wasn't a "how-to" book at all, which is what I expected.  It was more of a  conversation, a dialogue if you will, with the author regarding why we should be using mentor texts to teach writing.  Sure, she gives examples and ideas for using mentor texts to teach writing, but she spends more time talking about why the texts are important.  Why we should be showing kids, not telling kids, what to do with their own work.  (Isn't that what we make the kids do for us?  Show rather than tell?  This is the perfect way to model that expectation!  Mentor texts!!)

Ruth Culham does an excellent job of providing evidence for a lot of her ideas.  She has grounded so much of her thinking in research into many authorities on the subject of writing.  Not on the subject of teaching writing, per say.  She quotes authors, not researchers, often.  She has the research element there, but the quotes from the people that actually write books are exceptionally relevant to everything that she has done within the text.

As for those pesky thoughts that I was having about how this book surely can't be for me because my little first graders could never choose several books and compare the leads and then decide how to revise their own writing to include a strong lead based on what they learned from the mentor texts... Yeah.  Those were still running through my head the entire time I was reading.  In fact, I didn't feel that many of her examples really fit my situation given that I teach first graders and they can't read - like, at all - when we begin the year.  But then I got to thinking.. They are first graders.  First graders. They have little to no experience with real writing anyway.  What better time than now to show them what real, good, authentic writing looks like?  I mean, they copy everything that I do anyway.  I might as well show them how I use texts that I love to form ideas for writing, organize my thoughts, choose my words, and all the other great things that mentor texts provide.

I can honestly say that I do not feel that this book was a complete waste of my time.  Should I have been reading The Literature Review:  Six Steps to Success instead?  Well, yeah.  But only because I have to write one and I have no clue where to begin.  (And I need to have the lit review finished by the end of the month so I can thoroughly enjoy my vacation in July, but I'm such a procrastinator sometimes. Haha!)

This book certainly helped me to see the value in merging my reading and writing instruction.  I mean, I've always used mentor texts to teach writing.  (Okay, confession... Not always, actually.  But I have since being trained several years ago in using a workshop model for reading and writing.)  However, I've only just realized how well close reading lends itself to writing and vice versa, thanks to Ruth Culham!

I have spent the last several years reading everything that I could get my hands on that talked about reading instruction.  This was the first time I've really focused on improving writing instruction.  It was a great place to start, and I'm looking forward to really delving into the topic!  I plan to read The Art of Teaching Reading (I'll actually finish it this time, honest!) and The Art of Teaching Writing, both by Lucy Calkins, at some point this summer.

 

I have tons of other books on my bookshelf that I plan to read, but one in particular seems worth noting.  It is also by Ruth Culham.  I have 6 + 1 Traits of Writing:  The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades.  I got it back in probably March or April, and I was able to pull some ideas for the end of the school year last year.  They were great!  I wish I would have picked up the book earlier!  I am definitely looking forward to using Ruth's suggestions starting at the beginning of the year this coming year!  (For all of you that teach older students, she also wrote 6 + 1 Traits of Writing:  The Complete Guide Grades 3 and Up.)

   

Check back tomorrow for the next installment of the Daily 5 book study blog linky.  [Check in here if you missed the first post.]  Also, don't forget to check in with the rest of the crew on that linky.  There will be plenty of tips, ideas, and freebies to go around!

The Writing Thief

I purchased The Writing Thief by Ruth Culham with my students' very last Scholastic Book Clubs order last year.  I ordered it with some Bonus Points and then put it out of my mind.  I got the book literally two days before school ended.  To be honest, I had never hear of it, but I'm always looking for some interesting things to read as I spend a couple of days on planes in the summer.  (Traveling anywhere from Alaska is no joke!)

Then one day, I was checking in on Facebook.  I wandered over to this group that I'm a part of, First Grade Teacher Gab Group.  One of the threads was about summer reading plans.  Okay.  What is everyone else reading?  Maybe something that I should be reading...  Then, there is was!  A book that I randomly purchased for absolutely no reason... Someone was spouting off nothing but positive comments.  Now I'm intrigued... Not enough to pull the book off my shelf, though.  After all, I've got homework and stuff to do.  And my apartment is an absolute mess!  It still is.  I'll clean tomorrow.

Anyway.  I decided tonight to take the book out.  I read the first part of it.  I'm honestly surprised I made it through that much.  It's already past 12:30am.  I should be falling asleep right now!  But, no.  Instead, I found myself thinking the same thing I think every time I read a book like this...

Surely this doesn't pertain to me.  No.  I know it has nothing to do with me.  I mean, when you show kids' work like Joey's here, all I can think is that first graders aren't capable of that stuff!  I mean, my fourth graders could have done it, but I don't teach fourth grade anymore.

By the way, here's Joey's work that was shared:

Pretty good, huh?

Yeah.  My first graders aren't doing that.

But then I thought about Ruth's account of her time in her grandmother's bathroom... She became a reader and writer right there... and she said she was only like 4 years old!  (You'll have to read the Prologue for that story.  It's a pretty good one.)  If she could do it on her own at 4 years old, surely I can coach a bunch of 5- and 6-year-olds to want to write!

I'm in!!

In the Foreword, Kate Messner talks about how her own love of reading helped to foster her motivation to write.  She goes on to say "And as teachers, we must recognize that our very best resources for writing instruction aren't found in test prep programs or worksheets; they're in the books that we love as readers..."  I have to admit, I wholeheartedly agree!  Test makers and workbook writers are just that... test makers and workbook writers.  They are not authors.  Children need to experience a "conversation" with an author.  They need to feel comfortable questioning the author and figuring out why he chose to write what he wrote.  This is how we encourage children to become better writers; we give them authors to steal from!  (Side note: I also own the book Questioning the Author by Isabel Beck.  It's also on my reading list.)

In the Prologue, Ruth explains the situations that fostered her reading and writing independence.  She also speaks on the idea that this relationship between reading and writing is crucial to making growth in both areas.  Ruth explains how she reads texts over and over and over again, finding new meaning in each layer that she unfolds.  "This is close reading - where reading and writing intersect."  Isn't that what we want for our students to experience?  That relationship that leads to blossoming in both reading and writing?  It's what I want for my students!

I spent the last I don't know how long Google searching for blog posts, linky parties, anything about this book.  So far, I've only come up with one:  Teach Mentor Texts blogged about The Writing Thief last year.  LAST YEAR!! How have I not heard about this book then??? 

I haven't read any farther in this book yet.  I plan to.  In looking at the Table of Contents, it looks like the remainder of the book is set up to cover the educational shifts in writing instruction, some information on using and finding mentor texts, and then examples of mentor texts that can be used for each type of writing.  I still find myself holding that negativity in the back of my mind:  This book probably isn't for me.  It's surely got to be written for older grades.  After all, how can I teach my first graders to actually use the texts they are trying so desperately to decode?!  But I'm going to try to keep the negativity grounded.  Positive thinking!  Positive thinking!  Positive thinking!  I really hope this book doesn't turn out to be a giant waste of time.

If you're reading The Writing Thief, let me know!  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

EDIT:  I just stalked Teach Mentor Texts a little more, and I learned that she hosts an "It's Monday! What are you reading?" link up.  Well, this is what I'm reading... Go join up!  (There are a few links already posted, and the ones I've already checked out have some pretty good book ideas for the classroom!)

UPDATE:  I did finish the book.  You can read about it [here].

Conferring Notebook for Reading and Writing

Okay, so I found a little motivation tonight...  I gave the whole Conferring Notebook a facelift!

The first one is the old notebook (which is still available in my TPT Store for only $3 for a limited time... the price will go up by the end of this week).  The second one is the new notebook.  I forgot how much work it was to create the notebook!  I had to start from scratch with the new one because the first one was made on a computer that I no longer have and couldn't recover any of my files.  But it's finished now!  Whew!!

I have to admit that I'm still sort of in love with Option 1, the green one.  Not because I like the notebook any better, but the colors that I used just sort of speak to me. Haha!

On the other hand, Option 2 with the kids makes me happy for all different reasons.  I like that it's school-themed, I like that it's simple, and I like that I can have it and it doesn't matter what color my room is!  I also like the cute font on that one!  ;)

Anyway.  I need someone to go through the update (Option 2) with a fine-toothed comb.  It's late, and I just finished it.  I want to put it in my TPT Store, but I need to make sure that everything is there and everything is spelled correctly.

If you'd like to volunteer, I need three people to commit to the following:

• provide constructive feedback (you won't hurt my feelings if you tell me it's terrible - honest!),
• tell me what else you would like to see in it (what would help you more),
• make sure that what I said would be there is actually there,
• check my spelling, and
• make sure my explanation of the contents is sensible.

If you can do all of that before Tuesday, June 23, please let me know.  I will take the first three people that make the commitment.  Please make sure to leave me your email address!

UPDATE:  This file has gone out to four volunteers for revisions.  If you would like to be considered for future help, you may comment.  However, the revision process is already underway.  Thank you for your willingness to help.

UPDATE:  This file has been put into my TPT Store and can be purchased [here].  I appreciate all of the feedback and can't wait to get this printed to use it in my own classroom this year!